Love Olatunjiojo and a friend purchased Jolly Ranchers at a candy store in Coney Island on a sunny day last summer.
But when they walked several blocks from the store, police stopped them, and thought that the candies were crystal meth, according to a lawsuit Olatunjiojo filed against the officers.
One of the officers said that he had professional training in identifying methamphetamine, reported the New York Daily News.
“I don’t know if these cops have been watching ‘Breaking Bad,’ but my client is not Walter White,” said lawyer Kenneth Smith, who filed the suit Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Jermaine Taylor, the NYPD officer who said he had training, used a field test on the candies and said he got a “positive” result.
Two “red crystalline rocks of solid material” and four “blue crystalline rocks of solid material” were then sent to a lab.
Two days later, it was discovered they were doing Jolly Ranchers.
Mike Levine, a former DEA agent, told the News that Jolly Ranchers and crystal meth look alike.
“Crystal meth is produced in all kinds of colors,” Levine said. ‘There’s a type that’s going around that looks like strawberry Pop Rocks candy. Dope dealers will disguise their product in any way you can imagine.”
Olatunjiojo is seeking unspecified monetary damages after spending about 24 hours in police custody, and he says the situation caused him emotional distress.
